There are still almost 2 million tickets available to the Rio Olympics

KathleenBurke

Reporter

You won’t need to spend Olympic gold to see the Games in person this summer.

Demand for tickets to the Rio Olympics has been low in the months leading up to the events, which will run from Aug. 5 to Aug. 21. Ticket sales have been so slow that Rio organizers will now allow buyers from outside Brazil to purchase tickets at the same reduced prices as citizens, according to a report from the Associated Press. Previously, tickets were available through the authorized ticket resale site CoSport at an exchange rate of 2.35 real to the U.S. dollar with a possible 20% service fee added. Under the new local pricing, anyone can buy tickets from the official Rio website at the current exchange rate of 3.25 real to the dollar and no service fee. CoSport and the Rio Organizing Committee didn't respond to requests for comment.

“Demand has been slow,” says John Martin, chief executive of Great Atlantic Sports, which organizes travel packages for major sporting events world-wide. “Local Brazilians just don’t have money to pay and see these things.”

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Citizens of an Olympics host nation typically make up a large portion of ticket demand, but political and economic uncertainty in Brazil has created an unstable financial climate. Additionally, concerns over Zika virus have stemmed foreign travel into the country, and there is a chance that Russia, one of the larger Olympic delegations, may not be allowed to compete.

Thus far, 4.4 million of the 6.1 million available tickets for Olympic events -- 72% -- have been sold, according to the AP. Nearly 11 million out of 11.3 million tickets were sold for the London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012, according to the London Assembly.

While the empty seats may be bad news for Brazil, they could be an opportunity for Olympic attendee hopefuls.

Hotel, event travel and event ticket packages for a four to six night stay are starting at $2,200, Martin says, with three-star beachfront hotels offering rooms for $50 a night. “We don’t want the rooms to go empty,” he says, adding that Great Atlantic Sports has been encouraging organizers to offer the rooms to event volunteers and security.

Airbnb prices in the area range from $12 a night to over $6,000, and round-trip flights from New York City to Rio range from $1,200 to more than $5,000 depending on dates and airlines.

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Under the current real-to-dollar exchange rate, ticket prices to popular Olympic events are also affordable. Tickets to the opening ceremony and swimming events are sold out on the official Rio website, but prices for the closing ceremony range from $61 to $922, $31 to $277 for diving and gymnastics events, $15 to $184 for beach volleyball and $31 to $367 for athletics events, which includes track and field.

In 2012, ticket prices under the then-pound-to-dollar exchange rate ranged from $32 or less for events to up to $3,200 for opening ceremony tickets.

The demand has been a major change from the London Olympics in 2012, says Martin, who has been providing Olympics packages since 1996. “London was very good, we didn’t have any problems,” he says. “No one had to worry about disease or crime.”

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